RDG 323 Digital Notebook

Literacy Strategies
Name of strategy

Blogs/Wikis

Brief description of the

strategy  online journals or diaries that are often personal
accounts of life experiences, except rather than
being personal, they are meant to be seen by the
teacher and peers.
 Readers can usually leave comments, which lead to
discussions about the blog’s content.
 Weebly, EduBlogs, Google Blogs, Wikis, EdModo
are all types of blogs
 Strategy to write to learn
 This strategy supports reading and writing skills.

Explanation of how it can be

used  Teachers can use blogs to publish assignments,
resources, and keep students and even parents up to date
on class events, due dates, and content being covered.
 Teachers can also use blogs to help students’ master
content and improve their writing skills.
 Students can use blogs to publish their writing and
educate others on a particular topic.
 For instance, after completing an educational module,
students might be asked to write a blog on how they felt
about the module. Or it can be a little more structured
with a prompt to guide students thinking when writing a
blog.
 The blog should be a participation and effort grade. It
should not be read through to critique grammar and
content

Source (doesn’t need to be

APA) https://elearningindustry.com/how-to-use-blogs-in-the-
classroom

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Name of strategy
Code Switching

Brief description of the

strategy  In order to bridge the gap between the language
forms students use at home and the academic
language of school, teachers are encouraged to
engage students in interacting by
demonstrating code-switching
 Technology tools such as blogging, digital study
boards, and chat rooms can help students to learn
“codes” of language and their variations as
determined by the environment
 the use of Spanglish can be a helpful tool for
supporting students’ development of academic
literacy
 By code-switching, English learners were better able
to communicate the nuances of meaning in creative
and intelligent ways.
 This strategy supports speaking and listening skills

Explanation of how it can be

used  For example, a teacher of a diverse group of
students might welcome class members into the
room by saying, “Hello,” “Hola,” or “What’s up?”
Students learn that their response to a peer might not
be the same as a response to an adult.
 For example, a student might tell a peer, “Nope, thas
wrong,” versus telling the teller, “No, ma’am. That
answer is incorrect.”
 “Rap Parties”- students could find ways, through
music and journaling, to appropriate language by
understanding the differences between
conversational speech and academic talk.

Source (doesn’t need to be

APA) Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Name of strategy
Fishbowl

Brief description of the

strategy  Students seated inside the “fishbowl” actively
participate in a discussion by asking questions and
sharing their opinions, while students standing
outside listen carefully to the ideas presented.
Students take turns in these roles, so that they
practice being both contributors and listeners in a
group discussion.
 pre-writing activity
 Strategy supports listening and speaking skills

Explanation of how it can be

used  Select a topic that allows for multiple perspectives
and ensure students have time to prepare for the
discussion
 Common Fishbowl discussion format is the “tap”
system, where students on the outside of the
fishbowl gently tap a student on the inside,
indicating that they should switch roles.

Source (doesn’t need to be

APA) https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-
strategies/fishbowl

Name of strategy

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Rapid-Fire Writing

Brief description of the  This strategy gets students thinking and writing
strategy about a topic
 This strategy is often helpful in both brainstorming
and beginning to narrow the focus for discussion,
and it can be used to develop a thesis statement for a
formal essay or report.
 This strategy supports writing and reading skills
Explanation of how it can be
used  Choose thought-provoking texts/media that allows
students to have many different
responses/perspectives
 Students will read the text and then:

1 minute: Quiet thought; no writing.

3 minutes: Write (try not to stop writing the entire time).
1 minute: Read and circle three main ideas (words or
phrases) from what you have written. No writing during this
time. You can read, reread, and think, but do not start
writing again.
2 minutes: Write.
30 seconds: Read and put a square around one word or
phrase.
1 minute: Write.
 After the quiet, reflective time of rapid-fire writing,
it could result in a powerful class discussion.

Source (doesn’t need to be

APA) https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-
strategies/rapid-fire-writing

Name of strategy

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Reader’s Theater

Brief description of the  reader’s theater asks students to create a

strategy performance that reveals a message, theme, or
conflict represented by the text.
 Students become more proficient at using the words
of the text to depict concepts and ideas.
 This is an effective way to help students process
dilemmas experienced by characters in a text.
 Students should be reminded that the goal is not to
perform a skit of their scene but to use specific
language (words and phrases) to represent the
conflict, theme, and/or underlying message of that
excerpt.
 This strategy supports reading, speaking, and
listening skills
Explanation of how it can be
used  Especially for complex readings like Shakespeare,
students can act out scenes to help them understand
what is actually being said
 groups of four to six students are assigned different
sections of a text to interpret
 This strategy should be scaffolded by doing this in
steps:
-have students read through text first as a cold read
-close read the text, highlighting and annotating
-have students practice their lines

Source (doesn’t need to be

APA) https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-
strategies/readers-theater

Name of strategy Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD)

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Brief description of the  emphasizes the importance of achieving team
strategy learning goals but also recognizes that individual
performance is important in cooperative groups.
 The teacher introduces a topic of study to the whole
class, presents new information, and then divides the
class into heterogeneous four-member groups of
high-, average-, and low-achieving students to
engage in follow-up team study.
 The goal of team study is to master the content
presented in the whole-class discussion.
 This strategy supports listening and speaking skills

Explanation of how it can be

used  Each heterogenous team was to come together and
use maps and other research materials to identify
and understand the terms associated with a certain
time period, such as the Civil Rights era: Martin
Luther King Jr., segregation, Jim Crow Laws,
prejudice, discrimination, Grandfather Clause,
Montgomery Boycotts. For each of these terms,
teams had to exhibit an understanding of the term,
map the associated location, and determine the date
of significance. In addition, each team had to
complete a short quiz on the Civil Rights era.
 The team members help each other by discussing the
material, problem solving, comparing answers to
guide material, and quizzing one another to ensure
that each member knows the material.

Source (doesn’t need to be Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
APA) Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

Name of strategy

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 ReQuest

Brief description of the  sometimes called reciprocal teaching, was originally

strategy devised as a one-on-one procedure for a remedial
instructional context.
 ReQuest encourages students to ask their own
questions about the content material under study.
 Self-declared instruction help students establish
reasonable purposes for their reading
 This strategy supports reading, listening, and
speaking

Explanation of how it can be

used  As students are reading, stop them after each small
chunk and have them ask questions to the teacher.
Continue reading, stopping, and asking the teacher
questions and then switch to students making
predictions. Then, after a few times of reading,
stopping, and predicting, students will be
encouraged to finish the text on their own

Source (doesn’t need to be Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
APA) Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

Name of strategy Questioning the Author (QtA)

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Brief description of the
strategy  comprehension strategy that models for students the
importance of asking questions while reading
 Qta shows students how to read text closely as if the
author were there to be challenged and questioned.
QtA places value on the quality and depth of
students’ responses to the author’s intent.
 Through QtA, students learn that authors may not
always express ideas in the easiest way for readers
to understand.
 This strategy supports reading and speaking skills

Explanation of how it can be

used  After analyzing the texts, pose questions like:
-what does the author mean?
-does the author explain clearly?
-what is the significance of the author’s message?
 These questions are posed by the teacher to help
students “take on” the author and understand that
text material needs to be

Source (doesn’t need to be Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
APA) Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

Name of strategy

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Guided Reading Procedure (GRP)

Brief description of the  emphasizes close reading

strategy  It requires that students gather information and
organize it around important ideas, and it places a
premium on accuracy as students reconstruct the
author’s message.
 This strategy supports reading, listening, and
speaking.

Explanation of how it can be

used  Assign 500 to 900 words in middle school to read
 After students finish reading assigned section, have
them turn their books face down and ask them to tell
what they remembered from what they just read.
 Guide students in their thinking by saying there is
much more they may be forgetting or incorrectly
remembering and then have them go back into the
reading to refresh their memories
 Ask students follow-up questions and end with a
short quiz for immediate feedback

Source (doesn’t need to be

APA) Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

Name of strategy List-Group-Label

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Brief description of the
strategy  When the brainstorming activity is over and lists of
words have been generated by the students, have the
class form learning teams to group the words into
logical arrangements.
 Once they have completed the list,
group, and label steps in the strategy,
students write a sentence or paragraph using the
words from one of the lists.
 This writing task provides students with an
opportunity to synthesize their understanding of how
the words are related.
 This strategy supports writing and reading skills

Explanation of how it can be

used  First, the teacher identifies a key concept that
reflects one of the main topics in the text. Students
work in small groups and use prior knowledge to
generate a list of words related to the topic in a
given amount of time
 After brainstorming a list, students group the words
into logical arrangements
 Have students use the arrangement of words to
create sentences/paragraphs

Source (doesn’t need to be Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
APA) Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

Name of strategy Concept Circles

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Brief description of the
strategy  Relates words to one another
 Has students study words critically
 Students are given a set of words to categorize and
relate to another.
 This activates prior knowledge
 The circles help students analyze similarities and
differences of that group of words
 This strategy supports writing and reading skills

Explanation of how it can be

used  Give students a concept circle with some
terms/concepts listed, while leaving one or two
sections of the circle blank. Students will first need
to determine what these words have in common.
Then they will fill in the blanks with another
term/concept related to the other terms.
 Or give students a concept circle filled with
terms/concepts that may or may not be related to
each other. The students will first determine what
the words have in common. They will shade out the
words that have no relation to the rest of the circle.

Source (doesn’t need to be Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
APA) Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

Name of strategy
Text Response Cards

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly

 Brief description of the
strategy  Text response task cards direct the students to
respond to the text in a way that involves authentic
practices of the discipline.

 Each card identifies a task that a person within each

discipline would do as both a reader and a writer
within the discipline

 The strength of these cards is that they not only

encourage students to write but do so in a way that
uses the tone, language, and thinking skills of each
respective content area.

 This strategy supports reading and writing skills

Explanation of how it can be

used  First have students read as a cold read. Then give
them text response cards that give them roles to
consider when reading. For instance, the cards may
ask students
-Think like a historian and pick an event or moment
in time
-Think like a historian and look for facts that might
help explain the event you chose
-Think like a historian and see if you can find an
original account of the event

Source (doesn’t need to be Vacca, R., Vacca, J., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content Area
APA) Reading: Literacy and Learning across the Curriculum.
(12thed). Boston: Pearson.

RDG 323 Wiens Fall 2018 Literacy Strategies Digital Journal/Weebly